Chicago Forges Outline to End Teacher Strike

Karen Lewis, right, the president of the teachers’ union, after a news conference on Friday.Credit
Nathan Weber for The New York Times

CHICAGO — Five days into a teachers’ strike that halted classes for 350,000 public school students across this city, leaders on both sides of the contract dispute said on Friday that they had reached the outlines of a deal.

While details of the agreement had yet to be formally drafted and leaders in the Chicago Teachers Union still need to vote on whether to lift the strike, schools in the nation’s third-largest school district were expected to reopen as early as Monday.

“The heavy lifting is over and the framework is in place,” David J. Vitale, president of the Chicago Board of Education, said as he emerged from what had been days of tense, private negotiations while tens of thousands of teachers marched in red shirts outside schools, in neighborhood rallies and down Michigan Avenue in the city’s showcase business district.

Both sides said they planned to complete the deal over the weekend. If they do, it will bring a relatively quick end to what had become a chaotic situation for hundreds of thousands of families forced to find emergency child care and to the largest crisis so far in Rahm Emanuel’s first mayoral term. Mr. Emanuel had pressed for longer school days, more control for principals in picking teachers, and an expansion of the city’s charter school system.

For teachers, the week on picket lines — their first strike in a quarter-century here — was a show of force for a group that said it felt under siege and disrespected, under threat of school closings, packed class sizes, and an evaluation system that judged them by the test scores of their students, 87 percent of whom come from low-income families.

A swift return of children to classrooms here would also help lift politically awkward imagery for President Obama, who has not taken sides in the showdown between Mr. Emanuel, a close ally, and unionized teachers, a bloc that Democrats depend on in election years.

Robert Bloch, the lawyer for the teachers’ union, who had taken part in negotiations, said that both sides were still working out the details but that union officials were hopeful that they could present a complete agreement to the union’s House of Delegates — which has nearly 800 members — on Sunday. But he cautioned that the decision to lift the strike did not rest with the negotiators. “It’s for the House of Delegates to determine whether we will suspend the strike so kids can go back to school,” he said.

“This has been one of the most difficult labor contracts negotiated in decades,” he said when asked why negotiations had taken so long.

If the delegates lift the strike on Sunday, the union’s nearly 26,000 members could begin voting on whether to ratify the contract as early as Monday.

Much of the contract dispute has focused on teacher evaluations and job security, but few details of the deal were made public — a striking change of tone from previous days when those on both sides had openly argued over specific elements of their proposals.

The newfound resolve of all involved to keep the details of the agreement private seemed to be an indication that both sides were intent on finishing the plan and putting an end to the dispute. Even at a closed meeting of the union’s House of Delegates on Friday afternoon, union negotiators did not share details of the proposed agreement among those assembled.

The agreement appeared likely to maintain several provisions Mr. Emanuel and school officials had pressed for — a longer school day, principals’ ability to hire teachers and a teacher evaluation system that would, at least in part, include student test scores as one consideration. But many details were not known, including a final agreement on raises for teachers — one proposal had suggested an average teacher get 16 percent over four years — and on benefits.

Despite a fiery, often contentious back-and-forth here over the last tense week, remarks seemed sober and measured on Friday.

Mr. Emanuel, who canceled a public appearance on Friday morning as he kept tabs on the negotiations, issued a written statement that said, in part, “This tentative framework is an honest and principled compromise that is about who we all work for: our students.”

Karen Lewis, the often outspoken president of the Chicago Teachers Union, who had early in the week described the sides as far apart, seemed upbeat on Friday.

“It looks like something we can figure out a way to work out, as long as we have the language to support it,” Ms. Lewis said. A team of lawyers was expected to work through the weekend, racing to draft language of the deal in time to secure a vote from union leaders before Monday.

Even though teachers and union leaders did not get to see the outline of the proposed deal, many said they had renewed hope that they could soon be back in their classrooms with students.

Still, some said they were waiting for the details before they allowed themselves to grow too invested in the notion. And despite the outlines of a deal, the union said it still intended to go forward on Saturday with a rally — “Wisconsin-style” it said, alluding to the protests over collective bargaining rights in 2011 — that was expected to draw the largest crowds since the strike began, including labor members and teachers from other states.

“We’re not going to rush it,” said Sara Echevarria, who works at the union as a coordinator for grievances. “We’re not desperate.”

She added, “We are very excited, but it has to be the right deal to bring us back.”

For families across Chicago — even those who had vehemently supported the striking teachers, joining the line of pickets near every school or honking as they drove past clusters of teachers all in red — the thought that school may reopen on Monday came as a huge relief.

Many described a week of chaos behind them: missed days of work, a patchwork of pleading for baby-sitting favors, and children who seemed to be confused about suddenly be missing what was to be for many of them the second week of a new school year.

“All I can say is that it has been a horrific week — a nightmare of a week,” said Karen Miles, who had tried to find ways to juggle her two first graders while also attending numerous meetings she had scheduled for her job. She had to cancel three meetings. She took her daughters to her father’s house on one day, and for several other days to one of more than 100 schools that were being staffed on an emergency basis by nonunion workers.

“As a parent, I’m ecstatic that they’re going back — if they really are,” said Ms. Miles, a former teacher, who said she could see both sides of the debate, but was most focused now on her own children. One week, she said, would likely be quickly forgotten, but much longer might have left a lasting effect on her daughters’ year. “I feel like they were completely used as pawns in this.”

A version of this article appears in print on September 15, 2012, on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Chicago Forges Outline to End Teacher Strike. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe